Unrivalled
by Jargonelle
Summary: One shot: ‘And isn’t everything just that little bit brighter when Nino’s around?’ Smiles, strategy, support conversations, sons and shoujoai. Onesided Rebecca x Nino.


Unrivalled  
by Jargonelle

Summary: 'And isn't everything just that little bit brighter when Nino's around?' Smiles, strategy, support conversations, sons and shoujo-ai. One-sided Rebecca x Nino.

A/N: Spoilers for all of the Rebecca x Nino support conversations (dialogue lifted from their 'A' support conversation). Mark here is the tactician.

And as other people have mentioned, there's been a definite lack of shounen-ai in this category over the summer. Sorry this fic doesn't help to readdress the balance.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem.

.....

It is in moments like this, that Rebecca is painfully aware of the age difference between them.

Rebecca knows she would never have felt anything so warm about another girl's breasts hugged tight against her chest or about another girl's hands tracing patterns across her back, when she had been Nino's age. For Nino is just fourteen and still a child, whereas Rebecca is nearly sixteen and is much more mature. Or so she reckons.

She tries to not stare too hard or look away too quickly when Nino eventually pulls back from their chaste, supportive hug and she comforts herself by folding her arms decisively across her body and taking a backward step of her own.

Sometimes she runs her hands through Nino's bright hair (and isn't everything just that little bit brighter when Nino's around?), weaving ribbons and beads into the forest of vivid green. She wants to lean closer, wants her breath to warm Nino's neck, wants Nino's scent to envelop her, to cut off her air, but she will not let it come to that. The temptation, the longing she feels must be her punishment for betraying a friend. Nino always rushes to show Jaffar and her Uncle Legault her new hairstyles afterwards and Rebecca is never quite sure how to feel.

She has to pretend that nothing has changed, for Nino is lively and intelligent and desperate for attention and if she feels Rebecca is displeased with her, she will hide and cry and there is nothing Rebecca wants less than that. She thinks that she is Nino's first real friend of her own age and that comes with responsibility. Rebecca still has not completely forgiven Wil, her first real friend, for abandoning her. It still hurts.

Nino beams at her and, almost frozen, Rebecca forces herself to smile in return.

.....

Mark has noticed Nino too, though Rebecca is quick and happy to note that it is not in the same way that she herself has.

She trusts Mark, trusts him with her life, but she does not trust the way he suddenly joins her in conversation one morning when she is practicing. She feels that she is being judged, being analysed and that every comment she makes is being picked apart. Rebecca suspects that the talk is a test, to see if she is strong enough to fight in the next battle. It is rumoured that Mark even dreams in terms of supply lines and weapon triangles.

Rebecca thinks of herself as more flexible; she lives for the arc of an arrow's flight, the curve of a smile, not for the straight lines upon which Mark depends.

He looks at Nino and sees an asset – she has potential, real potential, but only if she is not sheltered and kept hidden. She has to be right out in the thick of things otherwise she will never acquire the experience the others have and he will be forced to leave her behind. It is a risk, a calculated risk, but a risk nonetheless. Mark, who has always been so careful, knows that in order to make anything of her, Nino must be placed in real danger.

Rebecca instinctively draws an arrow and notches it, pulling her arm back so far that the whole bow quivers.

Mark notices, but his mind is not changed.

.....

Nino is always learning, Rebecca realises, Nino likes to learn.

Rebecca fears she has little to offer; she cannot teach the anima magic Nino loves so much, nor does she have the patience to assist her with her reading. Rebecca is a good huntress, everyone in her village told her so, but she would not feel right teaching Nino those skills.

She teaches her simple cooking, but it is not enough, it is not personal enough.

Rebecca takes a deep breath and feeds several coloured beads onto a string, creating a necklace that she hopes is beautiful. She revels in Nino's response as she hands it over.

"Wow! You're amazing! You can do anything!"

She fights to hide her blush.

.....

Rebecca stands behind Nino, her longbow ready.

If so much as a single bandit gets too close, she swears she will strike him down with such fury as to scare all the others witless.

It turns out though that her guard is unnecessary as Nino copes admirably with every enemy unit who came her way.

Rebecca falls just a tiny bit further.

.....

"So... Nino. How's that necklace coming?"

"Oh, Rebecca! Here! Take a look!"

"Wow! That's nice! Good job, Nino!"

"Well, I had a good teacher, I guess! But I think maybe it's a little big for me..."

"Hmm. It might be at that... Why don't you just give it to someone you fancy?"

"Someone I fancy?" Nino sounds confused.

"Yeah, you know... Someone you like?"

A pause as Nino considers. "Rebecca, did you give a necklace to someone?"

'Well, I..." And it's too late to go back, to deny it. "It's a secret..."

'Hmm... Here... Take it."

Rebecca's world stops. Could it be that Nino feels the same? "Really?"

'I want you to have it. You've been so nice to me."

'Nice' a word often bandied in her direction, a meaningless pleasantry. A 'nice' person does not feel the terrible guilt of slowing falling in love with a friend. "Nino..."

"Thanks for everything, Rebecca. I hope we always stay friends."

"Yeah, of course!" Of course that is what Nino means. "I do, too! Thanks, Nino!" she says with a smile so wide it hurts.

Rebecca returns to her tent and sheds all her tears before the next morning comes.

.....

There will always be the question, the haunted look she gains whenever Nino's name is mentioned, the dreams of a future where she is not married and she is living her life as she wanted.

Yet like many who formed Eliwood's army, Rebecca knows her duty and she returns to her village a devoted servant of Pherae. She nurses Eliwood's son as if he were her own and it is an honour to serve her Lord as such.

Her son has an important part to play in Roy's campaign, Nino's sons perhaps even more so.

Yet what she felt, what she still feels for Nino in the depths of her heart when all her reason and logic have left her, is unrivalled by the love she has for her husband.

It was for the best that she never said a word.

Or so she tells herself.

.....

THE END


End file.
